Usually, I am not one for making new years resolutions. However, this year I found that there was something that I really wanted to create as a habit, having a hunch that it may help me and my mental health in the long run. My new year’s resolution was to start waking up between 5 am and 7 am every Sunday-Friday. Yes, this sounds daunting and you’re probably wondering how I could possibly conclude that cutting down my hours of sleep would improve my mental health! I can assure you that while it has only been a few weeks, I have definitely seen improvement.
Every day all around us there is so much happening. We have places to be, work to get done, friends to see. This creates days upon days of doing. Sometimes the doing seems like it is endless, which creates anxiety that can’t be dealt with because we still have to do! To me, it was seeming as if the doing was never going to end, and all life entailed was just moving from one thing to the next, doing doing doing. Not only does this create a real level of anxiety within us, but it also brings in so much noise. And while I do partially mean external noise, I mostly mean that it creates internal noise. When we are stuck in a constant never-ending loop of doing and needing to do and having done, our minds are filled with these tasks. We are filled with meaningless thoughts so concerned with what we have to do next and what we will do after that and so on. When you consider that we are always inside our minds, always having to hear whats going on in our minds, this noise of having to do almost becomes us. I found myself asking, what is meaningful about living life through doing a series of tasks, constantly filled with the noise of external duties? This question brought me to my new year’s resolution.
Waking up between 5 am and 7 am every day gives me at least 2 hours where I will have nothing to do. I have found that waking up and getting to watch the sky awaken is a rather emotionally stimulating way to start off every day. It is a reminder that there is so much more to living than just the doing. I am a whole person, I am my own sun. And while the sun rises and sets and gives us warmth and light, the sun is also being. It is something beautiful that exists to almost exalt itself and to use its fact of being to uplift nature and humankind. We are all suns. While we have external duties, we also have to be, finding and enjoying who we are, using these qualities to add to the qualities of others. By finding these early quiet moments to just be, there is no noise in my head. I am just existing and appreciating my place in the world, and reflecting upon others and their beings. I have found a moment to be before I do. And this makes all the difference.
If you find yourself overwhelmed by the tasks of day to day life, consider finding time in your day to be. Tell yourself that your mind needs to be, not to do. And when you start each day afresh in your being, doing takes on a new face. Doing is no longer daunting or noise creating, doing is fulfilling. Doing becomes something that can nourish our being, which comes first. So, this week I encourage you to remind yourself to be before doing.